The wrong and ( too) early Christmas exitement thread

And how do you feel about it now? Do you enjoy the cooking?
The cooking is wonderful. My family loves my cooking. I feel that feeding my family is a gift from my heart. I listen to Christmas music while I cook. My all time favorite is Manheim Steamroller's arrangement of Silent Night. I have to find a link.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTSkS0Abas4

I get goose bumps when the strings kick in
 
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Okay Clark, don't go and take down the power grid, again.

CD
The thing is...I don't put up that many lights. I have a split rail fence that sort of boxes in my driveway, and I wrap that in lights. I'm going to count how many feet are on it when I take them down.

Other than that, I'm wrapping the three porch columns, lights around the front window, and then lights in the evergreen tree at the end of the house.

I used to do a lot more, but I'm too damn lazy to get up on the roof any more. :laugh:
 
Last year I got into the spirit
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Ahh a Christmas thread.....usually this time of year I'd be saying it was still far too early, but I think we all need something to look forward to this year :okay:

Definitely, one of the reasons I posted it now. I am focussing on prepping for Christmas to distract me from less fun things going on in my life at the moment and it's working really well.

I'm usually pretty strict about the tree and decorations not going up until 1st December, but this year will probably decorate on the last weekend of November....assuming we can get a tree delivered! We've already bought a few new decorations for this year - a couple of things locally, and a couple of baubles from Käthe Wohlfahrt when we were on holiday in September (because we suspected that our usual December Christmas markets trip to Cologne wasn't going to happen this year). We've also ordered a new artificial tree for the kitchen - that should arrive in about a week's time, and because its pre-lit we're going to have to assemble it to make sure it works. And there's no point putting it away again just for a week so we'll leave it up (but not yet decorated!)

Yes, we're doing the same though our tree is going up next weekend. You have a tree in the kitchen, is that because you eat there?

Its our turn to host the family for Christmas this year - though who knows they'll be allowed to come? I've ordered a large turkey anyway....if they aren't allowed to come then we'll just have a lot of leftovers LOL. I like to keep Christmas menus fairly traditional so it'll be turkey on Christmas Day and ham on Boxing Day. We also usually have a fondue on Christmas Eve

Sounds great , a lovely traditional menu. I've ordered two stuffed (raw) chickens, so I can freeze one seperately for Easter if this will only be a small affair. Maybe you can bring some turkey around to friends and family when you have some leftover?
 
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A star is hanging in the window already and tiny led lights have been lit in a flower vase. I've ordered all the presents (for some reason online shopping seems most convenient this year) weeks ago. Most of them (traditional stuff like knit and crocheted goods, shawls, decorative prints, rubber stamps, clothes, books,...) have arrived and are waiting to be wrapped. I've also ordered gift wrapping papers, cotton ribbons/strands, lacy white vintage serviettes, chocolates and wrapped candies. There are dozens of candles in the sideboard/chest waiting to be lit.
❄🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯❄

Lovely, sounds like you have beautiful decor. I love the effort you put in wrapping presents!

We usually fetch the Christmas tree (either spruce or fir) on Dec 22nd-23rd from a nearby Christmas tree sale and keep it until Jan 6th which is the typical "Christmas's end day"; "Nuutinpäivä". Many people keep their tree outside or on the balcony but we always keep it inside. Traditionally the tree is decorated on Dec 23rd. On Christmas Eve we often go to a short Christmas service after lighting candles on relatives' graves, have our Christmas dinner and open the presents. (I find it tormenting that kids in most Anglophone countries have to stay in bed for the whole night - restless and sleepless - before they're allowed to open their presents). Christmas Day and Boxing Day are laid back days when people eat Christmas dinner leftovers, meet relatives, take strolls, watch TV, listen to Christmas carols, play games and read books. The rest of December is much the same until New Year as most people are on Christmas leave - and gain 5-7 kg (10-15 lbs).

Thank you for sharing these interesting points about a Finnish Christmas. In the Netherlands we don't do presents with Christmas, but more likely with Sinterklaas which I mentioned in another topic. Our gift giving is on December 5th, Christmas here is more of a food and drink kind of party. Why does Finnish christmas end at the 6th of January?

(Mostly from my earlier post): Traditional Finnish Christmas dishes are cooked potatoes, marinated (raw) herring in different forms, gravlax and smoked salmon/whitefish, unripened/cream cheese, blue cheese, jam, smoked cold meat, vendace/salmon/whitefish roe with sour cream and onion, beetroot-carrot-apple-(onion)-pickled cucumber salad, salted mushroom and sour cream salad, sweetened potato casserole, swede/rutabaga casserole, meat and/or liver casserole and oven-baked ham with mustard (and brown sauce). Coffee, fruit, nuts and sweets for dessert. White chocolate-cranberry cake has been a hit for a couple of times. Can't wait for Christmas; this year has sucked so far.

Sounds really nice! I am thinking of making a white chocolate cranberry pavlova, cake sounds good too!
 
Due to COVID, I still don't know what I'm doing for Thanksgiving quite yet. Too early to consider Christmas here.

I did notice one house a couple towns away is already all decked out for the Christmas season. I don't know if or when their lights will go on (I went past on an early afternoon).

Things I will do is send out cards and put up the outside lights. Cards typically go out early December, and the lights tend to go up mid-December but if winter precipitation is in the forecast, those will go up earlier than that. I like decorating the living room with the cards as they arrive. (I should order cards now.)

Yes, the cards are a lovely thing to hang in the living room on a string for decoration. It's probably best to send cards a little earlier this year, due to possible lockdowns sending them early may be advantageous.

I have a set of "houses" that I put on the mantle, that are holiday-festive, along with fake snow cotton. None of the decor will go up until early-mid December. I am debating a small tree. There won't be many people dropping by to visit so this is up in the air. Maybe COVID will miraculously vanish? However the location it would go would be by the front window, so maybe the delivery guys bringing the chickens their feed will get to enjoy it. The tree for me must be up before Solstice. It would go down before mid-January, especially as needles will be dropping by then!

That sounds beautiful, I am sure the people passing your window will enjoy it! I also don't know what to expect for Christmas covid wise, best is to have a flexible mind and planning.

Simply trying not to be in a "bah humbug" mood.

I will certainly listen to the sorts of seasonal music I enjoy at the second half of December. (Sometimes I listen to this at other times of the year, too...)

I WILL celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes in my own way on the 24th. IF I have a friend or two over, I'll arrange it so we can have this as a theme. It carries on Dad's approach to that part of the festivities!

What is the feast of seven fishes?
 
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